BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 183 



The Teachers' School of Science had been carried on through the liberality of 

 Mr. Cummings. The statement of the results is given almost verbatim from the Report 

 of the Custodian as follows : Fourteen lectures or practical lessons in Lithology had been 

 given by Mr. L. S. Burbank, during the winter, at which the average attendance had been 

 about 90 out of 100 members. This was a remarkable fact, considering that the class inclu- 

 ded a large number of the busiest teachers, the masters of the public schools of Boston and 

 the vicinity. Each member of the class was provided with tools, consisting of a small 

 hammer, magnet, file, streak stone of Arkansas quartzite, a bottle of dilute acid with 

 rubber stopper and glass rod, and the scale of hardness previously used in the Mineralog- 

 ical class of the preceding winter. All these were purchased by the members of the class 

 except the scale of hardness, reserved for future use. One hundred sets of rock speci- 

 mens were distributed gratis, affording each of the teachers a series. Most of these were 

 large enough for cabinet specimens, and many of the sets had been placed in the collec- 

 tions of the city schools, and used in the instruction of the pupils. The specimens were 

 largely collected in Massachusetts. The course was supplemented by a series of excur- 

 sions for field work in the vicinity of Boston. 



Of the Lowell free lectures given under the direction of the Society by the generosity 

 of John Amory Lowell, Trustee, four courses were" given during the winter. These 

 courses consisted of sis lectures, by Prof. E. S. Morse, on six New England animals and 

 their nearest allies ; six by Prof. G. L. Goodale on Botany ; six by Prof. T. Sterry Hunt 

 on Ancient Rocks of North America ; and two by Mr. L. S. Burbank on Mineral Veins and 

 Ores. The course on Botany was the best attended, the numbers present averaging 192. 



The additions to the Library during the year had been 327 volumes, 1108 parts of vol- 

 umes, 217 pamphlets and 67 maps and charts. 



Of the Publications there had been issued two parts of each of the seventeenth and 

 eighteenth volumes of the Proceedings, and three numbers of the Memoirs. A second 

 volume of the Occasional papers had also been published, of 171 pages and 21 plates. 



The Report of the Treasurer exhibited an excess of expenditures over receipts of 

 $522.39. 



At the election of officers, L. F. de Pourtales was chosen on the Committee of 

 Radiates, Crustacea and Worms, and Jules Marcou on the Committee of Palaeontology. 



Walker Prizes. The subject for which the annual prizes were offered for this year was 

 " An original investigation of the structure, development, and mode of life of one or more 

 of the fungi which injuriously attack useful plants, such as the potato, the onion, the 

 cranberry, etc., to be prefaced by an exposition of our present knowledge of the struc- 

 ture and development of the lower fungi." No essays were offered on this subject. 



At a meeting of the Council in May, a vote was passed, upon the motion of Prof. Shaler, 

 that no existing Council shall formally or informally pledge any part of the Society's 

 income for a future year. 



During the summer recess this year, there passed away by death one of the original 

 founders of the Society, Dr. Walter Channing. 



Dr. Channing was not only one of the original members of this Society, but he was 

 also one of the founders of the Linnean Society which preceded it. He took an active 

 part in the early formation of both. Upon the organization of the Boston Society of 



